Posts Tagged ‘Quotes’

Mercedes GPMichael Schumacher (9th)
“I had a straightforward race today which was even a bit exciting towards the end but really full of ups and downs before.

“We probably couldn’t have expected to take more than two points today and we certainly have to work on our race pace which is not yet where we want it to be.”

Nico Rosberg (12th)
” Our race pace was not good enough, and it was very difficult to push, so unfortunately we could not perform at the level that we wanted to here. Looking at my qualifying laps, we can take heart from a small step forward from Melbourne so we will keep the hard work up to make further improvements.”

Ross Brawn, Mercedes GP team principal
“The team and drivers did a great job today but obviously we are not fast enough at the moment. We will continue to work at it and I look forward to having a more competitive car and being able to mix it where we want to be.”

Force India
Paul di Resta (10th)
“I am quite happy I must say. The team did a good job with the strategy. I just could not hold off Michael at the end, he had fresher tyres and I also did not want to risk the championship point as well.

I think the DRS showed some good racing today, so maybe we can be confident that in China our race pace may even be a little bit better.”

Dr Vijay Mallya, Force India chairman and team principal
“Paul did an excellent job coming home in the points once again, while I believe that Adrian would also have finished in the top ten had it not been for the early nose chang.

“I am very proud of what the team has achieved here in Sepang this weekend and hope that we can carry this momentum, and great team spirit, with us to the race in China next week.”

Toro Rosso
Sebastien Buemi (13th)
“At my first pit stop I had the impression that the Pit Lane Speed Limiter had not been engaged. I immediately pressed it again, which deactivated it, so I speeded in the pit lane and picked up a ten second stop-go penalty, which I felt was a bit severe, as usually you get a drive-through penalty.”

Franz Tost, Toro Rosso team principal
“Fortunately, our closest competitors in the championship did not pick up that many points today, so we are still in reasonable shape in the constructors’ classification. However, the mid-field is very close at the moment, which means we have to do a better job, starting in Shanghai.”

Lotus
Heikki Kovalainen (15th)
“That was a pretty good race all round. I think we can be pleased that after a difficult Friday we showed the sort of performance that the winter tests had given us hope we could do so now it’s about continuing development of the car and keeping up the pressure on the guys ahead.”

Jarno Trulli (DNF)
“Unfortunately a clutch problem brought my race to an early end which is pretty bad luck as we were looking ok at our home Grand Prix.”

Tony Fernandes, Lotus team principal
” Heikki drove a fantastic race and it is exciting that he was really pushing the Toro Rossos in the final few laps – maybe with a couple more laps he would have passed one of them.

“Huge congratulations to the whole team and well done to everyone.”

Mike Gascoyne, Lotus chief technical officer
” This weekend has been by far our strongest race performance since we came back into Formula One, so it is good to be racing again.”

Virgin
Timo Glock (16th)
“I got a good start and got ahead of Trulli in the Lotus into turn one and everything was going well, but I was only able to defend the position for so long before he was able to get past.

“We are looking forward to what our development package can bring after China in time for Europe.”

Williams
Rubens Barrichello (DNF)
“A hydraulic problem forced us out of the race today. The team are still trying to identify exactly what the issue was.

“This wasn’t the start of the season I was hoping for and we need to improve. Right now we don’t have a reliable car and we’re playing catch up.”

Pastor Maldonado (DNF)
“We had a misfire problem on my car from the third lap. I tried to stay out, but we had to bring the car in. I am now looking ahead to China where I will be pushing to complete a full race distance and get a better result.”

HRT
Vitantonio Liuzzi (DNF)
“It’s a shame we didn’t finish by eight laps because our target was to reach the chequered flag. We had a small issue with the rear wing and were forced to stop.”

Colin Kolles, HRT team principal
“We stopped both cars just to be safe. Narain’s car had very high water temperatures so we advised him to stop. Tonio was close to the finish the race and felt an unstable rear.

“Overall it wasn’t a bad day considering this was our first proper race and our first chance to test the car in a race situation. Our lap times were not bad compared to the front runners, this shows there is some light at the end of the tunnel.”

Red Bull
Sebastian Vettel (1st)
“The entire race was quite different to what we saw two weeks ago – it was a lot closer and there were more pit stops due to the tyres.

“I’m very pleased with today’s result. I love what I do and don’t think I could be happier at this stage. It’s been close here, so we need to keep cool and keep pushing, but the guys know this is the way forward, so I’m not worried. But for today we will enjoy it and be very proud.”

Mark Webber (4th)
“It was a tough race today. It wasn’t a good start out of the box and we had a failure with the KERS, so I was out of position on the first lap

“Anyway, I fought back with a good strategy and got some good points at least. It wasn’t our day today and I was disappointed not to get on the podium. It was close, but not close enough, But, it will come and now we go to Shanghai.”

McLaren
Jenson Button (2nd)
“This has been an extremely encouraging weekend for us. It’s very satisfying to come away with a good lot of world championship points – everyone in the team has done an amazing job and we should feel very proud of ourselves. “Lewis Hamilton (8th)
“Today was just one of those days. It’s never satisfying to start second and finish seventh, but that’s racing. We just have to take it on the chin and move on from it.

“During the race, my tyres kept dropping off. I was trying to look after my tyres, and being hit from behind by Fernando (Alonso). I think he got a bit too close, and, when he pulled out, he just clipped me with his wing and broke my car’s rear floor. ”

Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren team principal
“Jenson drove a truly excellent race today, pushing hard when it was appropriate to do so but also conserving his tyres when necessary, and the result was a very well deserved second place.

Lewis had a difficult afternoon, his frustrations beginning at the very first corner of the very first lap, when Nick unexpectedly nipped past him from way back in sixth place on the starting grid. After that, he tried his utmost to reclaim the place, nearly doing so on a number of occasions, but inevitably his tyre conservation was compromised in the process.”

Renault
Nick Heidfeld (3rd)
“I had a great start just like in Australia, and did not expect to make up so many positions. I moved up to P2, making up four places. After that I did my best to follow Sebastian (Vettel) but he was much quicker

“It’s another great result for Lotus Renault GP and it’s clear the team has taken a big step forward this year.”

Vitaly Petrov (DNF)
” I made a small mistake which shouldn’t have had the consequences it had. I went wide and the car took off on the curb, landing hard. Both cars should have been in the points today, but the good news is that we clearly have the pace needed to compete this season.”

Eric Boullier, Renault team principal
“I’m pleased of course for Nick but I’m also pleased for the whole team. It’s another great reward for us, especially after the tough start to the weekend. It’s good to be on the podium again, although it is disappointing to have lost one car with less than ten laps to go.

“Scoring two podiums in a row is definitely very satisfying.”

Ferrari
Felipe Massa (5th)
“We definitely have to improve the car, but it’s equally true that our race pace is very different to our performance in qualifying. That’s a positive, but we know that grid position is nevertheless very important, so we have to move forward on this front.”

Fernando Alonso (6th)
“I am happy with this race: not with the result but because we were finally competitive.

“We were not lucky: if the moveable rear wing had worked all the time, I could easily have passed Hamilton down the straight, but instead we had to fight hard. He defended very well and, unfortunately, we touched: that broke my wing and I had to come back into the pits to change it, thus losing any chance of getting to the podium. These things happen.”

Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari team principal
“We cannot be pleased with this result, because today, we had the possibility to finally leap up onto the podium. Two incidents, linked one to a reliability issue (a failure of the moveable rear wing on Fernando’s car) and one at a pit stop (a problem with the left front at Felipe’s first stop) cost us very dear. It’s a shame.”

Sauber
Kamui Kobayashi (7th)
“I had a good car, the team did a great job, and I’m particularly happy we were able to score our first points here. The strategy with only two stops was a little bit risky, but I think it worked out quite well.

“I had some nice and fair battles with Mark Webber and Michael Schumacher, which I enjoyed.”

James Key, Sauber technical director
“The result was excellent for us. We are happy to get some points after what happened in Melbourne and, if you like, this is where it starts for us.”

Red Bull
Sebastian Vettel (1st, Q3 – 1m 34.870s)
“It was a challenging weekend until qualifying today. I was happy with the car, but we never really got into a rhythm.

“Yesterday wasn’t as smooth as we hoped for, but we knew the car had speed, so the main thing was to keep believing in it. In qualifying everything worked out straight away. It was very close in the end with the McLaren guys, so I’m happy to get pole.”Mark Webber (3rd, Q3 – 1m 35.179s)
“I knew it would be very tight; everyone was on a single pace after the first flying lap on the option tyre in Q3.

“It was a better performance from me today compared to Melbourne and I’m looking forward to tomorrow. I’m starting on the clean side of the grid and it should be an interesting race – I think there will be a lot of pit stops.”

Christian Horner, Red Bull team principal
“A great team performance today. To get first and third on the grid after a fascinating qualifying session, which was really tight with the McLarens today, is a great start to the weekend.”

McLaren
Lewis Hamilton (2nd, Q3 – 1m 34.974s)
“That was an almost perfect lap – I lost a tenth-and-a-half in Turn 14 – so we’re much closer to the front than we’d anticipated”

“I have no doubt that we can overtake Red Bull in the development battle – it’s just a question of when. We have to keep pushing to bring new components to the races; we can push this car to the maximum.”

Jenson Button (4th, Q3 – 1m 35.200s)
“I just wish Q2 had been Q3, but it wasn’t! I had a touch more oversteer in Q3, but that’s the set-up direction I chose to take. If it’s a dry race, we really should be able to take the race to the Red Bulls.”

“We have to stay calm and concentrated and, in the meantime, bring home as many points as possible.”

Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari team principal
“We know that, at the moment, we are not capable of fighting for pole position: two teams are currently quicker than us. Our aim therefore was to be right behind them on the starting grid tomorrow and we managed to do that.

Sure, we cannot be pleased with being a second off the pole time, but at the moment we have to be on the defensive”

Renault
Nick Heidfeld (6th, Q3 – 1m 36.124s)
“I’m very satisfied as I think it’s the maximum we could have achieved, especially looking back at Friday where we didn’t do many laps at all and didn’t have a lot of time to set up the car.”

Vitaly Petrov (8th, Q3 – 1m 36.324s)
“To get in the top ten today is a good result considering the track time we lost yesterday.

“For the race, anything can happen, but it’s clear that looking after the tyres will be very important because the degradation is very high here.”

Mercedes GP
Ross Brawn, Mercedes GP team principal
“We had a difficult qualifying session today. We’re still struggling with the consistency of the car and are not giving Nico and Michael the best chance to show what they could achieve.

“It will be a challenging race tomorrow, unless the weather or other events play a part in creating opportunities.”

Norbert Haug, vice-president, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
“Ninth and 11th positions on the fifth and sixth row of the grid are not the results that we have been aiming for.”

Sauber
Kamui Kobayashi (10th, Q3 – 1m 36.820s)
“I’m quite happy with today’s qualifying. Of course I was hoping to improve a bit on my very last run but I think there wasn’t more to get out of the car today.

“The race will be very interesting, especially in terms of tyre degradation in the heat. I am certainly aiming for points.”

Sergio Perez (16th, Q2 – 1m 37.528s)
“I am a bit disappointed because we had the potential for Q3 if I had got my final lap right. On my second run in Q2 I was caught in traffic on my out lap.

“It will be a demanding race, but I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

Toro Rosso
Sebastien Buemi (12th, Q2 – 1m 37.160s)
“I had a problem in Q1, when the left sidepod came off, but the mechanics worked well to fit a new one very quickly.

I am satisfied, because in twelfth, we are not far off the Mercedes and quite close to Q3.”

Giorgio Ascanelli, Toro Rosso technical director
“I am happy to be ahead of Force India and I feel Sebastien did a good job this afternoon and is where he should be, which means he can have a strong race tomorrow.”

Force India
Paul di Resta (14th, Q2 – 1m 37.370s)
“It was a very good job done by the team and equally, I think it was a very good lap by myself!

But tomorrow is going to be a long race, in tricky weather conditions, but I am certainly getting more excited now about our progress.”

Adrian Sutil (17th, Q2 – 1m 37.593s)
“The first qualifying session was not too bad I think and I felt quite positive. But we did not improve too much in the second session, which I was a little surprised about and we had a problem with a mis-shift.”

Williams
Rubens Barrichello (15th, Q2 – 1m 37.496s)
“We don’t seem to have the pace we need in qualifying. We were stronger in Melbourne and so we need to analyse why and see where we are in the race.

“All things considered, my lap was ok, in fact it was probably one of my best laps around Malaysia but it wasn’t good enough to counteract the performance of the car today. Whether we get rain or a steady run in a dry race we’ll be going for points.”

Pastor Maldonado (18th, Q1 – 1m 38.276s)
“That was a difficult session and we definitely didn’t expect to be out in Q1.

“The car wasn’t feeling as good as it was this morning. I had a bit of traffic as well so I didn’t get a clean lap. There’s no reason why we can’t get into the points.”

Sam Michael, Williams technical director
“That certainly wasn’t the qualifying session we were aiming for, but we struggled to get more out of the FW33 today.

“Tomorrow’s race will be interesting, whether that’s due to potentially wet weather or the number of pit stops made in the dry. Our focus is to score points.”

Lotus
Heikki Kovalainen (19th, Q1 – 1m 38.645s)
“That was a great session for us and I’m really pleased with how we’ve performed.

“There’s still a bit more to come so I think tomorrow will be a really interesting race for us, particularly when you see how close we are to the midfield, and with the pace we know the car has in race trim.”

Jarno Trulli (20th, Q1 – 1m 38.791s)
“Today’s performance is obviously a lot more positive for the whole team. We had no issues with the car in either session and I think we got pretty close to showing what the car can really do.

“It is a long and very hot race where anything can happen but I think we are ready for it, so let’s see how it goes.”

Tony Fernandes, Lotus team principal
“Words cannot express how happy and overjoyed I am right now. To see 18 months of hard work come good with us finishing within a couple of tenths of teams that have been around for a long time, and less than a second away from the midfield pack, that is an amazing achievement.”

Virgin
Jerome D’Ambrosio (22nd, Q1 – 1m 41.001s)
“I’m very pleased with the job we’ve done today. It’s definitely a step forward and I did a much better job than in Melbourne. I’ve learned a lot.”

HRT
Vitantonio Liuzzi (23rd, Q1 – 1m 41.549s)
“It’s great for everyone that we were well under 107 percent. We proved that in Australia the problem wasn’t a matter of pace but a matter of time out on the track.

“I think we can still improve, I did a good lap and this is the result: we will be on the grid tomorrow”.

Narain Karthikeyan (24th, Q1 – 1m 42.574s)
“We made it through qualifying which was our aim for today. The car is virtually brand new so it’s good to get some more mileage done.

“They’re forecasting rain for tomorrow so you never know what will happen out there.”

Colin Kolles, HRT team principal
“We made the next step by qualifying into the race. This was our target: to qualify and to be able to do more laps. By doing more miles we are understanding the F111 better and our drivers are getting more and more out of it.”